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IU student named to USA Today's All-USA College Academic First Team
Feb. 15, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University senior Philip Roessler has been named to the 12th annual USA Today All-USA College Academic First Team.
Roessler was one of 20 students so honored by the newspaper for intellectual achievement and leadership. All members of the first team receive a $2,500 cash award and are featured in today's editions of USA Today (Feb. 15).
A panel of educators selected the team from 682 nominees from colleges and universities in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Outstanding individual scholarship or intellectual achievement, and leadership roles in activities on and off campus were the most important criteria to the judges. Students also were judged on academic performance, honors, awards, rigor of academic pursuits and the ability to express themselves in writing.
A political science major, with minors in biology and economics, Roessler has maintained a 3.82 grade point average out of a possible 4.0. He is currently working on a senior honors thesis on the civil war in Sudan. He plans to foster his overseas interests through graduate study in international relations and conflict resolution management beginning next fall.
In addition to a stellar academic record, Roessler co-founded an IU student organization called the Outreach Kenya Development Volunteers. The group's primary mission is working to slow the worsening African AIDS epidemic through education and outreach. Roessler and former IU student Hank Selke founded the group in 1999, after reading a series of New York Times articles about the African AIDS epidemic.
"What I read really opened my eyes," Roessler said. "I decided, 'No matter how small, I'm going to do something.'"
Working the last two summers with the Kenyan non-governmental organization Inter-Community Development Involvement, OKDV members have traveled throughout the western province of Kenya presenting two-to-three-hour HIV/AIDS programs to groups at schools, churches, community centers and bars as well as to women's groups. The audiences view HIV/AIDS awareness films and discuss STDs and the origin, transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
In August 2000, OKDV undertook another educational initiative in the western Kenya province. The organization sent more than 1,600 pounds of books it had gathered, and the books are being used in the establishment of the region's first public library.
"Philip is, in my opinion, one of those rare students who has truly made a significant difference in the lives of others -- students in Bloomington, but most importantly, citizens in western Kenya," said IU Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis. "It is almost inconceivable to me that an undergraduate could have such an impact in such a brief period of time."
Roessler's other extracurricular activities include holding membership in IU's prestigious Board of Aeons, a group founded in the early 1920s by then IU President William Lowe Bryan to provide student advice on matters of importance within the university.
(Kevin Gray, 812-856-5682, keagray@indiana.edu)